Wildfires of 1996

Elbow Basin Fire

1996WashingtonWildfire

The Elbow Basin Fire burned 3,650 acres in Washington, in 1996. It was discovered on July 28, 1996, and contained on September 10, 1996. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
3,650 acres
Discovered
July 28, 1996
Contained
September 10, 1996
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 3,649 acres. Point of origin as reported, 48.930, -120.833.

The record

Reported final size
3,650 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
3,649 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
3,687 acres
Discovered
July 28, 1996, 5:16 p.m. local time
Contained
September 10, 1996, 2:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
Washington
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
WA4891212085119960728
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-318270
Perimeter map method
Other

The three sizes are three measurements: the size the agency reported when the fire was out, the burned area MTBS drew from satellite imagery before and after, and the GIS area inside the final perimeter, unburned islands included. They rarely agree exactly.

Other large fires in Washington in 199612

FireAcresStartCause
Cold Creek Fire57,520Aug 14, 1996Human
Unnamed Fire21,123Aug 7, 1996
Lincoln Fire20,080Aug 30, 1996Human
Timberline Complex15,238Aug 24, 1996Human
Juniper Fire8,480Jun 29, 1996Human
Quincy Fire8,450Aug 3, 1996Natural
North Fork Twentyfive Mile Fire8,352
Elephant 2 Fire5,830Jun 15, 1996Human
Unnamed Fire3,020Aug 11, 1996Human
Unnamed Fire3,000Sep 28, 1996Human
Elephant Fire2,115Jun 15, 1996Human
Appaloosa Fire2,000Jul 30, 1996Human

Every fire of 1996 Washington fire history

Nearby

Sources

Perimeters from the National Interagency Fire Center’s Interagency Fire Perimeter History, compiled from the Forest Service, BLM, BIA, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, the Alaska Interagency Fire Center and CAL FIRE. Burned areas and ignition dates from Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS), a program of the US Geological Survey and the USDA Forest Service. Fire reports from Short, Karen C. 2022, Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014], 6th Edition, Forest Service Research Data Archive, doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6. Records before 2014 were joined by this site: a fire report to the burned area its MTBS identifier names, a perimeter to the burned area it lies in when the names or the sizes agree.